# 5.3. Using Command Line And Terminals

So far, you have only worked with the tools and programs KDE provides. Undoubtedly, you will want to use other UNIX programs as well. There are two ways of running them: The quick command line and the terminal.

## 5.3.1. Quick Command Line

Pressing Alt-F2 pops up a small window where you can enter a command to run. Please note that you will not see any text output generated from a program started in this manner! This method is only recommended for starting X Window System programs or for running tools where you do not need to see or type anything. For other programs, you will still need to use the terminal.

## 5.3.2. The UNIX Terminal Emulator

From the application menu, choose Utilities > Terminal. A terminal window will open. Here you can use regular UNIX shell commands: ls, cat, less, and so forth. Using the options menu, you can customize the terminal emulator to suit your needs.